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- 1. HUMAN RESOURCES LEADERSHIP Roger Zuch CCP Chairman, Southern California Manufacturers Compensation Group
- 2. What is a Human Resources Leader ? • Coach • Counselor • Coordinator • Conduit • Communicator • Cop
- 3. HR Leader as Coach • Train • Empower • Assure • Motivate
- 4. HR Leader as Counselor • Listen • Empathize • Advise • Direct
- 5. HR Leader as Coordinator • Recruitment • Orientation • Benefits • Performance Management • Compensation • Safety • Activities
- 6. HR Leader as Conduit • Open Door • Inviting Atmosphere • Privacy/Confidentiality/Discretion
- 7. HR Leader as Communicator • Simple • Honest • Accurate • Respectful • Exchange
- 8. HR Leader as Cop • Legal Enforcement • Policy Enforcement • Policymaker • Precedents • Liaison to External Enforcers • Disciplinarian • Advisor
- 9. Human Resources Leadership Summary Trust, Honesty, Integrity, Respect, Dignity See My Profile and Resume on LinkedIn.com - or www.beyond.com/rogerzuch Contact information: Roger Zuch 2010 HRZuch@earthlink.net
- 10. Human Resources Leadership Summary Trust, Honesty, Integrity, Respect, Dignity See My Profile and Resume on LinkedIn.com - or www.beyond.com/rogerzuch Contact information: Roger Zuch 2010 HRZuch@earthlink.net
Editor's Notes
- Welcome to my presentation on Human Resources Leadership. What I’m about to share here is a 13 minute synopsis of things I’ve learned in over a quarter century of HR experience. As the song goes, “ If they asked me I could write a book ”. But for now I just wanted to share a few thoughts with you as either an employer looking for an HR Leader, or a person looking at HR as a possible career.
- What is a Human Resources Leader ? Is he or she a Coach to employees and Supervision ? Are they a Counselor to employees in need ? How about a Coordinator of employee events and activities – Everything from recruitment to retirement. They could be a conduit of information from employees to management. It’s also necessary to be a good communicator both in writing and in addressing groups of employees or supervision. And in some cases they might have to be a cop – enforcing government regulations and company policies. You have to wear all these hats and more if you want to be a successful HR Leader.
- As a coach the HR Leader is expected to be a trainer of employees and management. Whether it be government mandated sexual harassment training or teaching people how to fill out their benefits forms, the HR Leader must have the skills to teach. Being a coach the HR Leader must also be able to empower employees, either through in-house training or arranging for external education that will be beneficial to the employee’s career. In some cases I have had to arrange training for large groups of employees when a need was noted for basic skills such as blueprint reading or Vocational English. Coaching also must be bought into by the company management so that employees can be assured that their learning and improvement of their skills will lead to promotions and/or compensation rewards. Appropriate motivation is always a resource as well. The HR Leader must recognize the various motivational factors for each employee such as: money, power, prestige, appreciation, the search for knowledge, fear of being left behind or a genuine desire to improve, among many others. This will help the HR Leader to gain employee involvement and thus improve company productivity.
- A Leader in Human Resources must be a good listener . One of the most important jobs is to hear what employees are saying. This could be in the form of complaints, concerns, questions or suggestions. One must be an empathetic listener. Not that you will agree with everyone, but you must try to see their side and why they are coming to you. In this way you will best be able to advise them on what their next step might be, or what you may be able to do to help them. In cases where you cannot help, the HR Leader must be able to be truthful and admit that fact and, if possible, direct them to another source where their answer might be forthcoming. Always do what you can, but keep your perspective clear and don’t get pulled into something you shouldn’t.
- How many balls can a person juggle ? I have had the experience of having sufficient staff to manage all the HR functions and been in a position of being a one-man show. Time management skills are essential as you attempt to handle the many aspects of HR. If you have the budget for using recruiters that is always a big help but you still must weed out even their selections and track all applicants that the government requires as well as set up interviews, put together offers and follow up with candidates. One way to help the Orientation process is to create a PowerPoint presentation for employees to sit through. That is also an excellent way to ensure that you’ve covered everything and that all new hires hear the same message. Benefits are a huge project once a year and involve negotiation of rates, determination of employee portions and possible plan design changes. But even throughout the year you must be ready to assist employees who are having problems with claims and coverage. Performance Management is an area where I have found I can really help out the management team. Once a good performance review form is in place I always check the supervisor’s scores for consistency with their written comments and against their overall department. I also verify that there is nothing discriminatory from a legal standpoint in what they’ve said about their employee. With the proper Compensation system set up it’s easy to take the employee’s score, compare it to their position in their rate range and come up with a fair and equitable raise calculation. As a Certified Compensation Professional I have been able to set up job descriptions and salary grades that are competitive with the market and satisfy government auditors from an Affirmative Action standpoint. Safety may or may not be a part of the human resources function. In some cases the Safety Manager may report to the Director of Operations and only get involved with Human Resources when there are Worker’s Compensation claims. In most cases I have been highly involved in the Safety Committee and in filing appropriate reports and conducting accident investigations, as well as following up on injured employees and encouraging them back to work as soon as possible, even on restricted duty. Of course there are many other activities that HR gets involved in. Company picnics, Holiday parties, employee contests, newsletters, open forum meetings and others. Coordinating all of these is the challenge you face.
- But while you’re busy coordinating all those HR functions it is still necessary to have an Open Door policy because HR is the main conduit between employees and management. Depending on your workload and staff size you may have to have specific ‘open door’ hours. In my case I always try to keep myself available except when I’m in meetings or approaching a critical deadline. During my work in manufacturing environments the production schedule always has two shifts that overlap the office staff hours so I make it a point to take a walk through the plant at least once per shift per day in case there are employees who can’t get away from their work station or don’t want to be seen going to human resources. I also believe in making the HR office as inviting as possible. Personally I create a friendly atmosphere by having a jar of candy either by the door or on my desk. I also personalize my office with baseball posters or knick knacks so that there is a neutral topic to ‘break the ice’ and help employees feel like they’re talking to a real person and not just “Management”. It is extremely important to maintain privacy and confidentiality . Do not ever break an employee’s trust without their permission unless you have a legal or pressing reason to do so. (Such as an employee who is making threats of violence). You must use discretion in how you treat employee information. You are an important source of employee’s concerns for management and the knowledge you gain could help in union avoidance or other matters affecting production. But if you break that trust your usefulness in this area could vanish.
- One of the truest sayings of business is that “Communication is the key to success”. Whether it’s thru company newsletters, bulletins, memos, Meetings of small groups or all hands there is a basic formula for communications that I call SHARE. Keep it simple. Don’t over-complicate an issue or show off your knowledge or vocabulary skills. Just get the message across as simply as possible. Be Honest. Employees need to know they can trust you and you will gain their respect if you’re honest, even when it may be unpopular or even if you have to say “I don’t know.” (but always follow that with “I’ll try to find out”) Be as accurate as you can. Give examples if possible but don’t guess. ALWAYS treat your audience with respect. You may be the expert on what you’re talking about but in other areas they may know more than you, so talk to them as you would want them to talk to you. Remember to treat communications as an EXCHANGE of data. You may be doing the talking but your audience may have good input or questions that need to be answered. Maintain your authority but don’t be a dictator, be an information desk.
- Like it or not sometimes you have to be THE COP on the BEAT. It is your task to make sure that your company is in legal compliance with both Federal and State Labor Laws . Overtime rules alone can be especially exasperating to production supervisors but absolutely essential to avoid fines and penalties. Add in laws regarding discrimination, leaves of absences and benefits and all the rest, and you may feel like an HR attorney at times. Then there are your own company rules and policies . It is your responsibility to make sure that policies are applied fairly to ALL employees. Again this is not always easy when good workers are the ones breaking the rules but the same standard must be used for EVERYONE. You may have to be the one to create or recommend policy to upper management. I’ve been tasked with everything from writing an entire new Employee Handbook to making changes to sick leave/vacation and holiday policies. It is essential that you also keep up with employment and benefits laws to ensure that your policies are in alignment with legislative changes. You need to be very careful in the precedents you set. If you allow any employee to do something out of the norm, such as cash in vacation time, or switch to flexible hours, you have to be prepared to make that allowable for all employees or set up a specific set of circumstances where that can be allowed and stand by it. For example the exceptions to our ‘no vacation cashout’ rule was that it could be done if an employee kept a certain number of hours on the books, and if the cashout was needed for medical reasons, car repairs to his primary means of transportation to and from work, or to avoid bankruptcy or foreclosure on his house of residence. When employees tried to cashout because they were reaching their maximum vacation accrual we simply did not allow it because it did not fit the exceptions to the rules. When OSHA or the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program or other external agencies comes knocking on the door to your company more likely than not it will be you they want to see regarding a complaint or an audit. Always make sure your Safety Handbook and Illness and Prevention Plan are up to date and that you can pull out your Affirmative Action Plan and show that you are not only tracking the data but have a plan in place where there may be underutilization. If someone from Health and Human Services comes along to check on HIPAA enforcement, be sure you have an assigned Privacy Officer and that only they have access to employee medical records. (This provision in HIPAA has made it almost a requirement to have a minimum of two HR staff members because the one who approves hiring and firing cannot have access to employee medical information. Therefore a benefits representative has become a necessity) Disciplinary actions can be easier if you remember one thing. In order for them to occur the employee has to have broken a rule so it’s their own fault. If disciplinary action reaches the termination stage (usually after 2 or 3 warnings) it’s basically the employee who has fired themselves and you just have to process it. Layoffs, of course are much harder and it is the HR Leader’s responsibility to ensure that the proper employees are picked for the proper reasons so as to avoid lawsuits. In my years of service I am happy to say I have never had a wrongful termination suit filed against the companies I worked for. In all these instances, and more, you are the company advisor on HR issues regarding the law and policy. But remember, even though you are the HR expert do not make a judgment you are unsure of on your own. Use your corporate attorney if available or check with on-line legal experts such as those at HR California or experts available through the Society for Human Resource Management. In some cases you can even contact the agency that enforces the law or rule you are questioning. Most issues are common sense but don’t just guess. Be sure. And make a note of where you found the information in case you need it to defend your actions.
- The one thing about Human Resources that’s constant is that it’s always changing. With the wide variety of tasks, government legislation, benefit options, compensation incentives, training methods and computer software innovations there’s always something new to learn. But one thing that will never change is that if you, as a human resources professional, treat people fair, you’ll get a fair day’s production from your employees and have a successful company. I ask employees to share a THIRD of their day with me, that is, at least 8 hours of good work that’s based on mutual Trust, Honesty, Integrity, Respect and Dignity. That’s all folks !